BiblioVault - Books about Gitelman, Zvi

Contested Memories

Poles and Jews during the Holocaust and Its Aftermath

Zimmerman, Joshua D.

Rutgers University Press, 2003

Few issues have divided Poles and Jews more deeply than the Nazi occupation of Poland during the Second World War and the subsequent slaughter of almost ninety percent of Polish Jewry. Many Jewish historians have argued that, during the occupation, Poles at best displayed indifference to the fate of the Jews and at worst were willing accomplices of the Nazis. Many Polish scholars, however, deny any connection between the prewar culture of antisemitism and the wartime situation. They emphasized that Poles were also victims of the Nazis and, for the most part, tried their best to protect the Jews.

This collection of essays, representing three generations of Polish and Jewish scholars, is the first attempt since the fall of Communism to reassess the existing historiography of Polish-Jewish relations just before, during, and after the Second World War. In the spirit of detached scholarly inquiry, these essays fearlessly challenge commonly held views on both sides of the debates. The authors are committed to analyzing issues fairly and to reaching a mutual understanding. Contributors cover six topics:
1. The prewar legacy
2. The deterioration of Polish-Jewish relations during the first years of the war
3. Institutional Polish responses to the Nazi Final Solution
4. Poles and the Polish nation through Jewish eyes
5. The destruction of European Jewry and Polish popular opinion
6. Polish-Jewish relations since 1945

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Developments in Russian Politics 6

Stephen White, Zvi Gitelman, and Richard Sakwa, eds.

Duke University Press

Taking as its starting point the elections of 2000 and 2004, Developments in Russian Politics 6 brings together all new, specially commissioned essays by leading experts to provide a wide-ranging assessment of Russian politics under Vladimir Putin. The contributors provide succinct overviews of aspects of contemporary Russia’s political landscape, including presidential power, parliamentary politics, elections and voters, political parties, federalism, regional politics, the media, the economy, and social and foreign policy. Clearly and accessibly written, Developments in Russian Politics remains the first-choice text for students and anyone seeking a reliable and current introduction to the politics of the world’s largest state.

Contributors. Alfred B. Evans, Zvi Gitelman, Gordon Hahn, Margot Light, Michael McFaul, Sarah Oates, Thomas F. Remington, Peter Rutland, Richard Sakwa, Robert Sharlet, Darrell Slider, Judy Twigg, Stephen White, John P. Willerton

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Developments in Russian Politics 6

Stephen White, Zvi Gitelman, and Richard Sakwa, eds.

Duke University Press

Taking as its starting point the elections of 2000 and 2004, Developments in Russian Politics 6 brings together all new, specially commissioned essays by leading experts to provide a wide-ranging assessment of Russian politics under Vladimir Putin. The contributors provide succinct overviews of aspects of contemporary Russia’s political landscape, including presidential power, parliamentary politics, elections and voters, political parties, federalism, regional politics, the media, the economy, and social and foreign policy. Clearly and accessibly written, Developments in Russian Politics remains the first-choice text for students and anyone seeking a reliable and current introduction to the politics of the world’s largest state.

Contributors. Alfred B. Evans, Zvi Gitelman, Gordon Hahn, Margot Light, Michael McFaul, Sarah Oates, Thomas F. Remington, Peter Rutland, Richard Sakwa, Robert Sharlet, Darrell Slider, Judy Twigg, Stephen White, John P. Willerton

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The Emergence Of Modern Jewish Politics

Bundism And Zionism In Eastern Europe

Zvi Gitelman

University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003

The Emergence of Modern Jewish Politics examines the political, social, and cultural dimensions of Zionism and Bundism, the two major political movements among East European Jews during the first half of the twentieth century.

While Zionism achieved its primary aim—the founding of a Jewish state—the Jewish Labor Bund has not only practically disappeared, but its ideals of socialism and secular Jewishness based in the diaspora seem to have failed. Yet, as Zvi Gitelman and the various contributors argue, it was the Bund that more profoundly changed the structure of Jewish society, politics, and culture.

In thirteen essays, prominent historians, political scientists, and professors of literature discuss the cultural and political contexts of these movements, their impact on Jewish life, and the reasons for the Bund’s demise, and they question whether ethnic minorities are best served by highly ideological or solidly pragmatic movements.

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The New Jewish Diaspora

Russian-Speaking Immigrants in the United States, Israel, and Germany

Gitelman, Zvi

Rutgers University Press, 2016

In 1900 over five million Jews lived in the Russian empire; today, there are four times as many Russian-speaking Jews residing outside the former Soviet Union than there are in that region. The New Jewish Diaspora is the first English-language study of the Russian-speaking Jewish diaspora. This migration has made deep marks on the social, cultural, and political terrain of many countries, in particular the United States, Israel, and Germany. The contributors examine the varied ways these immigrants have adapted to new environments, while identifying the common cultural bonds that continue to unite them.

Assembling an international array of experts on the Soviet and post-Soviet Jewish diaspora, the book makes room for a wide range of scholarly approaches, allowing readers to appreciate the significance of this migration from many different angles. Some chapters offer data-driven analyses that seek to quantify the impact Russian-speaking Jewish populations are making in their adoptive countries and their adaptations there. Others take a more ethnographic approach, using interviews and observations to determine how these immigrants integrate their old traditions and affiliations into their new identities. Further chapters examine how, despite the oceans separating them, members of this diaspora form imagined communities within cyberspace and through literature, enabling them to keep their shared culture alive.

Above all, the scholars in The New Jewish Diaspora place the migration of Russian-speaking Jews in its historical and social contexts, showing where it fits within the larger historic saga of the Jewish diaspora, exploring its dynamic engagement with the contemporary world, and pointing to future paths these immigrants and their descendants might follow.

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Religion or Ethnicity?

Jewish Identities in Evolution

Gitelman, Zvi

Rutgers University Press, 2009

Can someone be considered Jewish if he or she never goes to synagogue, doesn't keep kosher, and for whom the only connection to his or her ancestral past is attending an annual Passover seder?

In Religion or Ethnicity? fifteen leading scholars trace the evolution of Jewish identity. The book examines Judaism from the Greco-Roman age, through medieval times, modern western and eastern Europe, to today. Jewish identity has been defined as an ethnicity, a nation, a culture, and even a race. Religion or Ethnicity? questions what it means to be Jewish. The contributors show how the Jewish people have evolved over time in different ethnic, religious, and political movements. In his closing essay, Gitelman questions the viability of secular Jewishness outside Israel but suggests that the continued interest in exploring the relationship between Judaism's secular and religious forms will keep the heritage alive for generations to come.

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